Place to install Rudolf Nureyev’s monument is approved in Ufa

UFA, 18 February 2019. /Bashinform News Agency/ translated by Tatiana Aksyutina/.

The monument to the outstanding dancer Rudolf Nureyev will be installed in the alley near the Bashkir Opera and Ballet Theater, public figures reported.

The discussion was attended by the authors of the monument and specialists of the Department of public utilities and improvement of Ufa. The decision to establish the monument by Ufa authors - sculptor Vladimir Lobanov and architect Leonid Dubinsky close to the building where the dancer began his brilliant career, is final.

“According to the authors of the monument, organizational and financial issues only should be resolved, the customer and the term of the project implementation should be determined”, the publication “Argumenty I Fakty” reports referring to the participants of the meeting, which took place on February 14 near the theater.

The press service of the Ufa City Hall did not officially confirm the information.

In 2017, the issue of the monument was again raised by the Public Council for Culture, a working group was created, and a contest was held, in which 12 projects participated.

Rudolf Nureyev was a Soviet, British and French ballet dancer, and choreographer, soloist of the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater named after Kirov. In 1961, after the end of the tour of the company in Paris, he asked for political asylum, becoming one of the most famous “defectors” in the USSR. Rudolf and his mother were evacuated to Ufa in 1941. He began to dance in the children's folk ensemble in Ufa, took dance classes of ballerina Anna Udaltsova in St. Petersburg.

In Ufa, the name of Rudolf Nureyev is given to the Bashkir Choreographic College and the International Festival of Ballet Art, which takes place annually since 1993 on the stage of the Bashkir Opera and Ballet Theater, as well as to one of the city streets. The Rudolf Nureyev’s Museum was also created at the Bashkir Opera and Ballet Theater. Besides, a memorial plaque and a bas-relief are installed in honor of the dancer in the city.